Wilpena Pound
We arrived, late afternoon, at our fantastic farmhouse lodge at Willow Springs near Wilpena Pound, our home for the next two nights. Before we checked in we visited the nearby Wilpena Pound resort and stocked up on essentials, food, wine and beer.
Willow Springs was a beautiful place and very comfortable. It was cold that night, we are in the mountains, so we lit the big wood burning stove in the kitchen and the place warmed up quickly. We made dinner in the now warm and massive kitchen and retired early as we all wanted to climb a mountain in the morning.
The mountain is called Ohlssen Bagge. Jenni and I had hiked to the top the last time we were here and we wanted to do it again with Andy and Jenny. That morning we had a substantial breakfast in the Wilpena Pound resort to fuel up for the hike.
The Mount Ohlssen Bagge hike is 4 hours and 5.6 kms long, Grade 4 Hard Hike, according to the hiking web sites.
After breakfast and with a fantastic day ahead of us we set off to hike to the top.
The weather was perfect for a hike like this. A couple of hours or so later we were nearly at the top.
Only 400 metres to go.
An finally we were at the top.
We made it down safely and much quicker than we hiked up then went back to our farmhouse for dinner.
Stokes Hill Lookout
When we checked into Willow Springs they mentioned that the sunset view from the nearby Stokes Hill Lookout was worth a look. Given this was our last night Andy and I thought we should give it a go.
The moon was full and rising. One of the curious locals came to see what we were up to.
A few other curious souls had the same idea as us.
The sunset was quite beautiful.
Andy drove us back to the farmhouse. When we checked in last night we noticed a fire pit out the bac so when we got back after our sunset session we lit the fire outside and had a celebratory, last night drink.
The next day we left early for another long drive. We were taking the long, slow route to to Adelaide, our next stop on this trip.
QUORN
We stopped along the road at the interesting town of Quorn for lunch, at Emily’s Bistro.
Quorn is a pretty and historical village
They have done well decorating the town. There are loads of interesting buildings there.
The Quorn Railway Museum stands in the middle of the town.
It’s an interesting and well stocked place.
The war memorial, just beside the station, had these ghostly figures in it. It was quite moving.
Wirrabarra Painted Silos
We wanted to see some painted silos on this trip and the first stop was the silos at Wirrabirra.
From the web site:
“Wirrabara is a town located in the Southern Flinders Ranges in the mid north of South Australia. The Horrocks highway passes through town and it also sits on along the Rocky River. In April 2018 Sam Bates, or as he is otherwise known ‘Smug’ visited the town of Tumby Bay during the ‘Colour Tumby Street Art Festival’. It was here that Smug met the organiser of the festival Dion Lebrun. The local Wirrabara Community did not want a local resident painted on their silos, so Smug chose Dion Lebrun to be the inspiration for the Wirrabara silo Art. The artwork also depicts the rich history of the area which has strong ties to the forestry industry as well as referencing the beautiful local flora and fauna for which the area is also well known for. The Viterra Silos at Wirrabara took Smug three weeks to complete in October 2018. The site includes generous parking spaces in the designated car park (located on Forest Rd) available for several buses, caravans and cars. Picnic seating is also available. Verge side parking is strictly prohibited.”
The details of the artwork was amazing.
Next stop Adelaide.
Pikes Beer Company
We were staying in Adelaide with Jenni’s cousin, Kathy and her husband Peter. Somehow we have created a tradition of making sure we turn up with some craft beer from a local brewery when we stay with friends or family. The local brewery we chose was Pikes Beer Co. Clare Valley as it was on the way to Adelaide.
This is the brewpub at Pikes Beer Company. We got there 10 minutes before it closed and snagged a couple of mixed six packs.
Kathy and Peter were the most gracious and generous hosts. They had a gorgeous platter waiting for us when we arrived then treated us to a massive selection of bbq’d meats.
We retired quite early though. as the next day was a working day for Jenni and I and we had a client visit in Adelaide. We also had to clean the campervan and return it then pick up a hire car for the rest of the trip to Melbourne.
Jenny and Andy cleaned and returned the campervan and then explored Adelaide. These are some images fromm their trek around town.
After our client meeting we met up, picked up our hire car and drove the short, one hour drive to Bluebird Cottage in Angeston in the Barosssa Valley.
The drive to Angeston took us past the Edinburgh turnoff which, for the two scots on board, was a fun sign to see.
Angaston is in the heart of the Barossa Valley wine region. We’d booked an ebike wine tour for the next day but that is one for the next blog.
Walligans Travels 